Does Snobbish Service Generate Better Sales? the Case of Luxury Goods

This study intends to explore how “bad” service encounters trigger the purchasing urge in a luxury goods store in an Asian emerging market. Does snobbish service encounters trigger the urge to save one’s social identity and make a luxury good impulse purchase? Does a consumer accompanied by a close friend moderate the proposed relationship? A 2 (snobbish service vs. excellent service) × 2 (single vs. accompanied by a close friend) between group factorial design on 160 female consumers in Taipei, Taiwan was conducted to examine the causalities between the determinants and the urge to save social identity and the impulse purchase of luxury goods. The results show that consumers in an Asian emerging market could be triggered to make an impulse purchase of a luxury good, not because they received excellent service in the store, but because they encountered snobbish service, especially when shopping with a close friend.

Citation:

Jyh-Shen Chiou and Chien-Yi Huang (2011) ,"Does Snobbish Service Generate Better Sales? the Case of Luxury Goods", in E - European Advances in Consumer Research Volume 9, eds. Alan Bradshaw, Chris Hackley, and Pauline Maclaran, Duluth, MN : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 536.